Rabu, 03 November 2010

Should Members of Parliament serve Foreigners?

"In my Meet-the-People sessions,
I see more appeals by foreigners who can not get permanent residency."
~ MP Indranee Rajah,
NUS Forum "Economic growth: At what cost?", 3 Nov 2010,
(Refer to ST, 4 Nov 2010, Page B5)

I cannot help but ask, why are our members of parliament spending time on attending to foreigners' appeals?

Shouldn't MPs be devoting 100% of their Meet-the-people session time to Singaporeans instead?
That's the point of giving them our votes, right?
That is to represent us in the greater governance and decision-making system.

This is hardly the same as, say, foreigners utilising government hospitals/polyclinics and depriving the Singaporean to be served first. In the healthcare context, minimally, the policy-makers can presumably argue that foreigners pay 'full-price', and so deserve to be treated equally at government hospitals/polyclinics.
*Foreigners pay 'full price' the consultation fees at public hospitals/polyclinics. However, because meds and other charges are at the same price, the price differentiation between the Singaporean and foreigner patient's bills isn't really that great, but that's a separate topic altogether.

But here... at the Meet-the-People sessions... Each MP devotes only a precious X no. of hours each week. It's invaluable time, and should entirely and exclusively be expended on Singaporeans, and no one else. If not, what's so sacred about the vote each Singaporean has???

Of course, if the MP has a foreigner friend who wishes to appeal to the Singapore Government for xyz purposes, the former can help by forwarding the appeal to his/her (political) contacts in the Government in his/her personal capacity. Whether such requests ought to be forwarded or dealt with, will then depend on the MP's code (if there is such a thing) or the appeal policy of the respective ministry/public agency.

The point remains that the Meet-the-People session ought to remain exclusive to Singapore Citizens only.

Furthermore, each session is also staffed by volunteers. The grassroots people. Are they also keen on serving foreigners? Or do the MPs have the power to decide for all involved?

Even if some foreigners are indeed being 'marginalised' and require representation to the Singapore Government for appeals, requests etc, they should be doing so through their own embassies, or perhaps election of their own representative.

In the words of MP Dr Amy Khor some years ago, this is indeed 'betrayal'. It's just plain wrong.

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